Welcome,
eco-minded viewers,
to this week’s edition of
Good People, Good Works,
featuring the Sustainable
Living Roadshow,
a non-profit group
made up of eco-advocates
and entertainers
that help communities
learn strategies
for sustainable living.

Step right up
and play our games.
A sustainable planet, we
can proclaim, a carnival,
much more conscious
than before.
Have great fun
and learn some more
about what you can do
to help the Earth.
Take the steps towards
a healthy re-birth!

My name is Zach Carson;
I'm the director
of an organization called,
“The Sustainable Living
Roadshow.”
We're a group that travels
across the country setting up
off-the-grid eco-festivals.
So we believe that learning
about sustainability
should be something
to be celebrated,
to be enjoyed, a change
that we need to embrace.
So we try to use fun,
the concepts
of the old-time circus,
to really spread messages,
tools and information
to local communities
on ways that they can
empower themselves to
really shift their behaviors
and their lifestyles to one
of more sustainable ways.

Mr. Carson holds a
bachelor of science degree
in ecological design,
sustainable development
and environmental education
from the University
of Vermont, USA.
He is a dedicated individual
who is deeply committed
to constructively
changing our world.

We’ve been on the road
since about 2006,
all over the US,
throughout West Africa.
We’ve toured
over 200,000 miles now.
We use all bio-diesel.
We try to tour zero waste;
all of our events
are off –the-grid
so they’re all run on solar
or bio-fuel generators.
And this last tour
has been about
three-and-a-half months,
setting up a festival
every weekend
across the country.

Here we go, heading
towards the Sustainable
Living Roadshow zone.
Check it out.
This is where the activism,
non-profits, our friends,
our people (are)…

What are the Roadshow’s
primary productions
and attractions?

Every weekend
it’s different.
We go to existing festivals
and set up eco- villages,
we use music festivals a lot,
because they seem
to have become
one of the center points
of American culture,
especially among the youth.
Trends seem to go
from there; music seems to
go from there, and those
have always been tools
for creating change.

So we bring in
solar-powered stages,
and offer full days of
workshops, everything from
an overview of bio-diesel,
how to start
a community garden,
organizing
on your college campus,
to overview of GMOs
(genetically modified
organisms).
We have carnival games
that have eco-themes, like
“Toss out fossil fuels”
where you throw
bean bags at oil derricks,
coal factories and
gas pumps and out pops
solar panels, windmills,
and barrels of bio-fuel.

We bring out
massage therapists,
acupuncturists, and
nutritional consultants.
We have markets for
conscious corporations
and we represent, sample
and sell their goods.
So it's quite a big set up,
it can be
up to 30,000 square feet.
And when
we go to colleges, we
set up those same things.

But everywhere we go,
we try to create a platform
for the local community
to showcase
what resources they have.
So, six months out we'll
do research and we'll find
all the green businesses,
the non-profits,
the healing artists,
the food cooperatives,
the activists,
and we'll invite them
into the platform.
So they can come together,
and it can be a platform
of community teaching
community, rather than
us coming and saying,
"We are here to save you.”

It’s like actually
all those resources that
we are presenting are
in your community, and
you have them available.
It’s not really a lack
of resources, of tools,
to change the world.
It's just a matter
of people willing to
embrace those resources.

How did this champion
of sustainable lifestyles
decide to start
a traveling show
to inform people about
greener ways to live?

I happened to
go to Costa Rica, where
I met a crew of people
who had just driven
from California down to
Costa Rica on two buses
that ran on vegetable oil.
And they were
teaching farmers
all along the way about
the dangers of pesticides
and the benefits
of organic (foods).
And they were like
beautiful people,
they were friends,
they were travelers
from all over the world.

And at the time
I'd just received all of this
research and information
on fossil fuels.
And I came home
and I was like,
what an incredible way
to live your life,
traveling with friends.
And not just being
a tourist, but being
an active participant
in the community process
and spreading knowledge.
And so I changed
my thesis from that
of studying fossil fuels to,
“Using cross country
bio-fuel bus tours as
a means of changing the
collective consciousness
of the country
on sustainability issues.”

So is that how you came up
with the unique idea
of a road show,
by seeing that example?

That was how
I came up with it, and
then I spent 25,000 miles
driving across the country
doing interviews
and going to festivals .
And four months later
my bus broke down
in Northern California,
and that same weekend
Julia Butterfly Hill, who
sat in the Redwood tree
for over two years,
she was launching a tour
in a vegetable-oil-
powered bus
across the country.
And it was the weekend
I got there,
and I went to the event
and that weekend
I met the two people who
are my business partners
today, who had started
the concepts
of the Sustainable Living
Roadshow.

Thus far, the Roadshow
has participated in
over 200 events and tours
around the world,
including the Spring 2011
Right2Know Tour.

One thing we just did
is the Right2Know March.
I was on the steering
committee for the March
and we did 320 miles
from New York
to Washington, DC.
And it's opened my eyes
to a lot of issues that are
going on in this country
that relate to GMOs,
(genetically modified
organisms) but
systemically relate
to the bigger picture
of the uprisings that
we see globally going on
of corporate entities
taking advantage
of Earth's resources
for their own good.
So I think one of the things
that we can all do is start
to vote with our dollar.

A growing body of
evidence points to
disastrous health outcomes
from genetically
modified organisms
(GMOs), such as
premature aging, immune
dysfunction, cancer,
multiple organ damage
and reproductive disorders.
Examples of crops that
have been genetically
modified include
soy, corn, and papayas.

With the GMO issue,
we found through
a lot of studies that
eight out of 10 people
will choose the non-GMO
(food) if it's labeled,
over the GMO (food).
If we’re successful
in passing mandatory
(GMO) labeling
in California, we will
give consumers a voice.
And one
of the strongest things
we can do as people is
use that voice and choose
not to spend that money,
because when we stop
spending that money,
those companies
go out of business.

And that’s one way
we can create change, is
find out what companies
are really doing well,
what companies
are giving back,
what companies
are not animal testing,
what companies
are not using GMOs,
what companies
have corporate social
responsibility initiatives
that give back.

While on the road,
how many people make up
the Sustainable Living
Roadshow team?

This tour right now,
we have
25 people on the road for
three-and-a-half months,
living together.
We did another tour in
the spring in California
where we had 14 people.
I'd say we’ve worked
with thousands of people.
We have college students
that intern with us
throughout the year.
We have advisors; it's been
a 100% volunteer effort.

So, the people that work
with us are passionate
about the concept
of creating change
on national levels
and local levels.
So it's not just
the kind of 9-to-5 people
that we get working with us,
it's the people
who feel a calling
to have their voice heard.

What kind of diet
do you think is the most
sustainable and why?

So eating locally
and vegetarianism is
reducing our impact.
And (eating) vegetarian
is probably one of
the best things we can do
for the planet
and our communities.
(And vegan even better)
And vegan even better.

Do you incorporate that
in your road show?
Promoting the vegan
or a vegetarian diet?

Yes, we hand out
information from PETA.
We only eat vegetarian
on the road.
We cook and source from
local farmers as we go,
so we feed our crew with
all local and organic food.
And we find food vendors
from the local communities
when we have events
that subscribe to
those same philosophies.

Before
the Sustainable Living
Roadshow moves on
to its next destination,
Zach Carson has a message
for our viewers in the US,
particularly California,
where during the
November 2012 elections,
voters in the state will
decide on a ballot initiative,
or proposed law,
that will require
all food manufacturers
to clearly label
products containing
GMO ingredients.

(There is) a petition that
goes to the FDA (Food
and Drug Administration)
and the website is
JustLabelIt.org.
It’s really important that
everyone goes out there
and signs this petition,
as well as in California,
that people support
this ballot initiative.
I think that’s going to be
a really big step.
If we get in California,
California being one of
the largest economies and
the largest food producers
in the country,
companies won’t have
the ability to label food
just in California.
So, it’s going
to really shift behavior
on a national scale.

And right now,
with the whole
occupation movement,
I just encourage people to
go out and have a voice.
Express yourself
in peaceful, beautiful
and artistic ways.
Be one to
represent the change.
Just embody it
and try your hardest
to live the way you want
to see the world.

Zach Carson,
our accolades to you, and
the Sustainable Living
Roadshow staff members
and volunteers
for your steadfast,
praiseworthy work.
May the Roadshow
continue to travel
far and wide, using
informative games and
performances as well as
fun and laughter to
promote sustainable living
in communities
around the world.

For more information
on the Sustainable Living
Roadshow,
please visit
www.SustainableLivingRoadshow.org

Gentle viewers,
we’ve enjoyed
your company today on
Good People, Good Works.
May we soon see
true peace on Earth
as our hearts so desire.